The having of a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time; usually, the marriage of a man to more than one woman, or the practice of having several wives, at the same time; -- opposed to monogamy; as, the nations of the East practiced polygamy. See the Note under Bigamy, and cf. Polyandry.

A surprisingly unpopular social scenario, at least in the West, which most accurately maps social life among other high primates. In this model, an able and powerful male accumulates a group of healthy females and impregnates them, thus ensuring that the best genes are passed to the next generation; less successful males are forbidden reproductive access. Strange that of all the different social forms which are proposed nowadays, this alone has no pressure groups or protest movements campaigning for its introduction.

Gr. poly: many + gamos: marriage] • A breeding system in which an individual acquires more than one mate. In polyandry, a female mates with more than one male, in polygyny, a male mates with more than one female.

The practice of men having more than one wife was started by Joseph Smith in the early/mid 1830's and ostensibly ended in 1890. It is not now practiced within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Church headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Members found practicing it are excommunicated. While the practice was ended, the revelation teaching it is still in Mormon scripture (D&C 132). Some Mormon splinter groups believe the teaching was for eternity and still practice it. These modern-day polygamists (called fundamentalists) number in the 30,000-50,000 range.

A marriage with more than one spouse. Polyandry refers to the marriage form in which one women marries more than one man. Polygyny refers to the marriage form in which one man marries more than one woman.